by Richard Medina
Greetings, Apex Insiders!
Myn name is Richard Medina and I have been playing since Age of Ultron and got competitive pretty fast. Won several WKOs and Super Q’s. Top 8 in Nationals and Worlds before finishing 2nd last year in Team Worlds.
Going into this tournament I was on the fence between going Quinjet or Lex but some bad loses with the Jet, I decided to go to with Trinity War Lex Luthor. Lex’s trait makes many unprepared teams unable to deal with him.
RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES: Lex Luthor begins the game with a Subterfuge token on his card. When Lex Luthor has a Subterfuge token on his card, opposing characters can only target him if they began the turn adjacent to him. When Lex Luthor targets an opposing character with an attack, remove all Subterfuge tokens from his card.
THE SYNDICATE IS BAD FOR BUSINESS: Lex Luthor can use Leadership and Outwit. When he uses Leadership and succeeds, he may instead remove the action token from a friendly character with the Injustice League keyword within 3 squares and regardless of point value.
The strategy is put Lust relic on Lex and Sidestep away from people to make sure no one bases him. If someone does have Plasticity, I can push to click 2, picking Hypersonic (from Parallax) to get another +2 to breakaway. He calls in big characters to KO someone and Sidesteps away (classic point denial). The Bat Signal and Giant-Girl aids in “poofing” the call ins. His damage power allows him to take action tokens off himself allowing him to call in IDs turn after turn. The Pandora’s Box also has a 50% chance to give Lex Probability Control making sure the call ins hit or he breaks away.
The Best call in on my force is Phoenixbuster Iron Man. Parallax’s Cosmic Fear power Perplex’s down Iron Man’s Range allowing a giant 11-Attack, 5-Damage Pulse Wave, with his trait making his damage penetrating to cosmic and colossal figures. This KO’s basically all the retaliators with a Pulse Wave attack.
Turn one typically involves giving the Lust relic to Lex. Have Giant-Girl carry him out to the midpoint of the map. Move two bystanders to the Bat Signal to activate turn two if necessary. The last two bystanders stand in the starting area to be given the Wrath relic in case Giant-Girl is KO’d, and to ensure access to Probability Control.
Why this build over Atomica or multiple Giant-Girls.
Previous builds had an Atomica and 3pt Justice League ATA, upping the chance of Leadership, and a Gamma Bomb. The problem with the build is that is its much easier to score points besides Lex and IDs. It is easy enough to get 49 points. Meaning the first ID I call in needs to get at least 55 points for me to be ahead of my opponent. With the Parallax build that number goes down to 28 and trying to get 34 points with the first ID. Parallax’s Speical Power allows the Phoenixbuster Iron Man to be used, Perplexing down his Range to allow a Pulse Wave of 4, and not 5. Also, Parallax grants Invincible to counter Shredders builds.
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The Team
200 TW Lex Luthor
1 Justice league ata
25 Parallax on Lex
10 Giant Girl
12 Pandora box
4 Wraith relic
4 Lust relic
2 Bat Signal
6 Protester
3 Super Fan
3 Trucker
5 Iron Man ID
5 SHIELD Level 7 ID
5 SHIELD Level 7 ID
5 Batman ID
5 Green Arrow ID
5 War Machine ID
Sideline:
NF056 Nick Fury
TMT052 Hulk
AoU026 War Machine x2
TW051 Batman
EW049 Green Arrow
ADW053 Iron Man
Phoenixbuster Iron Man
Murder Machine
Why these IDs
*Nick Fury can turn off powers and does penetrating damage against the highest point figures
*Hulk is the Nighthawk prime killer. Goes through walls/blocking and Shape Change
*Batman has pick-a-power, Prob, Perplex, Outwit and Running Shot 12-Attack/3-Damage
*Murder Machine can act similar to Vulture and the ability to shoot though walls makes him useful to clear out swarm teams and indoor maps
*Green Arrows sees through most things and gets though STOP clicks and most Defenses
*War Machine heavy hitting, pick-a-power, with 7-Range and 3-Targets but typically he is using Running Shot/Pusle Wave, but has the versatility with either Precision Strike, Pen Blast, Energy Explosion as well as Probability Control when targeting multiple characters
*Iron Man was to be a situational call in switch army knife with his pick-a-power ability. Never used him
*The MVP, Phoenixbuster Iron Man. Real Name: Tony Stark. A giant that can Pulse Wave over walls, 11-Attack, Pulse Wave, 5-Damage. Peanut base that can be 6 six squares out if the back base is within 5 of Lex for extra Range. But his trait makes him the best. That’s like everything in this format.
Here Goes Nuthin’: Phoenixbuster Iron Man’s attacks deal penetrating damage if the target character is assigned a relic or a resource or possesses any of the following: “Giant damage symbol”, “Colossal damage symbol”, the Power Cosmic team ability, the Cosmic or Phoenix Force keyword, or the word Phoenix in its name as a separate word.
I went 7-1 over the weekend.
Round 1 vs Blue Panther
Started this tournament bad calling in Iron Man to try an destroy an indestructible object and it went south fast. Only los this tournament.
Round 2 vs Zombie Super Skrull with Gauntlet and monster colossals
I lost map and was taken to indoor Prison map. I took the lead using Phoenixbuster to KO a Groot and Carnage and 2 Walking Woods and pinging Super Skrull. He went for Giant-Girl and my bystanders for food tokens, and I called in Murder Machine who took out Giant-Girl and Surtur, but Skrull rolls Shape Change. Time ran out before Super Skrull and Lex could fight 1 v 1. I won on points.
Round 3 vs Spider-Man (Iron Spider) with Gauntlet
I thought this would be an easy win but I was wrong. We took out each other’s support easy enough. Spider-Man started basing Lex picking Plasticity. Missed with Phoenixbuster and Spider-Man got to hit Lex for 6 with Exploit putting him on his last click. Lex Sidestep breakaway, then Regen. Spider-Man clears and Lex ran for the rest of the game picking Hypersonic from Parallax and Plasticity from Lust relic, and Spider-Man couldn’t catch me.
Round 4 vs Phoenix Shredders
This is the team that made me go Parallax and drop Atomica. Parallax gives Lex Invincible on click two. Turn 1 relic on Lex and Giant-Girl carryies Lex halfway across Amok Time. He moves to Lex, pinging him for one and getting him to Invincible and afterwards kills Giant-Girl. His Peace Machine is close enough to get Pulse Wave for 4 by Batman to KO him. He has no Pusle Wav, but he has Black Widow to turn off Invincible and does so but can’t do enough damage to Lex to get past all of Parallax’s Invincible clicks. Lex runs Outwitting Clone Shredder’s Willpower. After a few turns I call in Phoenixbuster to Pulse Wave Shredder Clone and times runs out.
Round 5 vs ultra chase Thanos + Lockjaw Phoenix force
This one ended somewhat fast. Lockjaw pushed to Pulse Wave Lex and Giant-Girl and hit. Pushed Thanos near Lex. Next turn single target Pulse Wave Thanos with Batman. Bat Signal away. He moves Lockjaw away from Thanos. Phoenixbuster Pulse Wave him for the win. Outwitting Lockjaw Pulse Wave until time ran out.
Top 8 vs Q, Q, Mxy, Daredevil, Groot
Turn one relic on Lex, Giant-Girl carries Lex across Amok Time. He bases Lex Luthor with Walking Woods. Turn 2 Lex Luthor Sidesteps and replace with a 1 from Mxy. Move break away and I’m near his starting area. Turn 3 Phoenixbuster takes out both Qs, Groot and hit Mxy for one. Bat Signal away. Daredevil and Mxy tries to base Lex and lock him down. Lex Luther rolls Leadership, calls in batman, KOs Mxy. It’s over, Daredevil tries to lock him down but to no avail.
Top 4 vs Vulture, Tangent Green Lantern
Turn one relic on Lex and Giant-Girl carries him halfway across the map. Vulture charges to KO two Protesters and picks up Bat Signal but misses Giant-Girl. Called in Murder Machine takes out two Big Tony, an Ultron Drone, Surtur and hits Vulture for 4. Lex Sidesteps away and Murder Machine goes away before colossal retaliation. The rest of this game is mopping up.
Finals vs Zombie Super Skrull, Nighthawk
Turn one relic on Lex Luthor Giant-Girl carries him out. Super-Skrull gets Sniper Rifle and Pusle Wave Lex and Giant-Girl for one. He moves Nighthawk up to Skrull. Lex calls out Hulk to KO Nighthawk then Bat Signal Lex away. Lex backs away and I use bystanders as meat shields. Super Skrull hides in the middle of the map with Suited Henchman and Barrier. Lex Luthor destroys the wall and passes. My opponent thought Lex lost his Subterfuge token but didn’t (only when he attacks opposing characters!). Picks powers: Running Shot. Pen Blast and had to KO a bystander. Phoenixbuster KOs him next turn.
